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From Pole to Pole, Melting Beyond the Interdecile Range

Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center have been following the extent of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic for many decades now, long enough to establish a long-term baseline for the years 1981-2010 and then to compare current ice conditions to those older ice conditions.

Measured in millions of square kilometers, the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent for 2017 so far is indicated in graphs below with the line in blue:

But of course, the blue line isn’t all there is to the graph. There’s a dark gray band, representing the “interquartile range” — the area within which half of the sea ice extent measurements for a calendar day lay between the years of 1981 and 2010. Then there’s a lighter gray band, representing the “interdecile range” — the area within which 80% of the sea ice measurements from 1981-2010 lay.

Look how far the measurements have sunk for this year, 2017: far below the edge of even the interdecile range. For our planet these are unusual times, strange times, irregular times.

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About the authorJim Cook

I haven't been everywhere, but I've lived lots of places in the USA: the North, the South, the East, the West, and places in between. Every place I've been, I've seen acts large and small of kindness, callousness and disregard. Here we are. What will we do?

It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.